League appoint Lester as secretary

LESTER Thomas was appointed as the Cornwall Combination League's new secretary at last week's committee meeting, writes Paul Smith.

He replaces Brian Harris, who has stepped down after 19 years' service. Lester can be contacted on 01209 219239 and when the league issue him with a computer he will be available by e-mail.

At the previous committee meeting, before the season, clubs were reminded to fill in their paperwork correctly and send it off within the specified time, phone in results on time and to send the fixtures secretary a list of qualified club lines-persons.

However, last Thursday £318 in fines were handed out to 15 of the 20 clubs, ranging from £3 to £70. There were seven games where the result wasn't phoned in, 13 instances of late or incorrect team sheets, 26 times when clubs played without a lines-person and a couple of clubs failed to fill in registration forms correctly.

Both Newquay and Porthleven were fined for playing ineligible players, but as both matches were lost they were not docked points.

Both clubs were also fined for starting matches with less than 11 players.

If possible clubs were asked to inspect pitches at around 10am on a Saturday to avoid the negative publicity clubs have been getting via social media regarding postponing games.

I have asked around and wondered how much are the clubs from the ECPL and Combo going to charge for their Cornwall Senior cup games against theSWPL Premier teams? For example, will Wendron charge more than Illogan, as Wendron are playing St Blazey while Illogan are playing Pendeen? Will they print souvenir programmes as well to make extra cash?

Hard luck to Penryn Reserves who lost their 500th league game to Pendeen last weekend, which coincidently was Pendeen's 300th league victory.

This weekend Hayle Reserves will play their 200th league game away at Holmans. However, both teams are a way off Newquay's record of having played the most Combo games with 1,780.